What to Show for Two Years of Q: A Letter From Your Senior Co-Editors-in-Chief

Thank you for picking up the last issue of The Q : the last issue of this academic year, and the last issue of our time as Co-Editors-in-Chief of this publication.

The Quindecim Office 2011. (Photo: Kaitlin Higgins)

In the past two years, we have published 28 issues. That’s a total of 344 pages, 588 articles, 7 letters to the editors and 1 retraction.

The Public Safety Blotter accounted for less than 4% of our total printed content. The other 96%, the actual student writing and editing, the reporting and transcribing, the photographs and bylines, we rarely heard a word about- unless, of course, that word was misspelled.

We’ve made our fair share of mistakes. That’s part of being a print publication, and human. As editors, we are always looking forward: planning for the next issue, charging blindly ahead with a sort of frantic fear of stopping because if we stop, who will keep going? Perhaps this fear of reflection is why revisiting our time with The Q leaves us with the memory of pathetic, printed misdemeanors and poor syntax. We understand spelling and grammatical errors jeopardize journalistic integrity, but instead of offering assistance, most just ridicule.

Over the past four years, we’ve watched an unfortunate trend develop on campus: the apathy of a dispassionate student body. If every student who pointed out a misspelled word or complained about the content of our pages were to join in The Q’s efforts, whether that be through copy editing, writing, taking photos, expanding our online presence, etc, we’d be considerably stronger as a publication and a community voice. We can go to press every two weeks, but we can’t change the culture of a college campus. Our dedication and perseverance are rivaled by a select few students on this campus, and to you we applaud. We hope you continue to help this community grow.

For some unfathomable reason, neither of us could walk away. We were never paid. We received no academic credit, and little to no acknowledgement of the time and energy we’ve exerted into a 100 year Goucher tradition that we just wouldn’t let die.

Devoting so much time and passion into a publication undermined and mocked in the very community it serves has humbled us. We’ve learned more about teamwork, patience, dedication, and selflessness in our hours with this newspaper than in any classroom. Q has taught us how to function brilliantly with only 3 hours of sleep. We also have Q to thank for a few lifelong friendships.

Through it all, there has always been one person we could come to with anything. Our advisor, Dr. David Zurawik, embodies the spirit of The Quindecim. The publication would not exist today without his energy and spirit. Z, we thank you. You are the wise man of The Q tribe, and have guided us through thick and thin.

To our hard working staff, and those students who care enough to pick up our pages, we also thank you. Best of luck, Jackie! You can do this!